Machine Gods (Star Crusades Nexus, Book 2) (39 page)

“You bastards, what do you want?”

The machine moved
closer still, ignoring the spittle on its armored head. It looked
at Spartan with unusual interest. The other machines continued
moving around him and connecting up a series of tubes and
equipment. Spartan tried to get up, but none of his muscles above
the shoulders responded. For a second he feared he’d been
permanently paralyzed, but he remembered the needles in his arms
and the straps holding him down. The machine was now just a meter
away, and the plates around its head and chest started to move. The
sound of servos, motors, and gears whined as the plates pulled
apart to reveal the pilot inside. Spartan expected to see some
great beast, but it was humanoid, no bigger than him though
withered and weather. The form was contained in a flexible suit
almost like a soft eggshell that lay suspended in a gyroscopic
assembly. The face looked ancient, not much different to what he
would expect to see as a corpse. It looked at him with its empty
eye sockets and a toothless mouth.

“Your extinction.”

The metal plating
closed up around its fragile cargo until it was fully sealed. The
metal monster stood upright and looked to its comrades. The doors
hissed open and in walked another of the red machines, this one
with even more battered looking metal armor. It looked to the other
machine as if speaking, yet there was no sound. It eventually
stopped and looked to Spartan.

“Spartan, the Rift...” A voice whispered in his
mind.

He looked over to
the newly arrived machine, but it remained stationary, like a
statue, nothing more. The shape of a great, coiled demon, the very
essence of Echidna herself appeared behind his eyes, and he cried
out at the sight of the thing. In the background, moved legions of
ships, none of which he recognized. All of them moved like a single
shoal of fish toward a large black disc floating in
space.

“
The Rift,”
h
e whispered to himself and to the
machines.

The image changed to
one more familiar. It showed Terra Nova, capital of the Alliance
and the most vibrant and cosmopolitan planet he’d ever seen. Great
columns of black smoke arose from its shattered cities. Hundreds of
ships tore down from the skies and discharged great creatures from
hell itself onto the surface.

“Save your world.”

The image changed to
one final place, a world he’d never seen before, and one that moved
around an alien sun. The black shape of the Rift appeared as if
just a few million miles away.

“Helios...or annihilation!”

Spartan opened his
eyes and found he was staring into the bloody face of Khan. His old
friend was still in his chains and looked even worse for wear. He
grinned with obvious pain at Spartan.

“So, you live.”

“Just about. I know what they want.”

Khan raised an eyebrow.

“Well?”

“Helios. They want to control Helios and something
else, something they kept repeating, over and over.”

“What do they want?”

“A rift, they call it the Black Rift.”

THE END